Tubular bandages are in common use and are available in a range of sizes suitable for use in bandaging anything from fingers to arms, legs and toes and even the head. The bandage material is normally supplied in a roll from which a suitable length is cut for use, this length being applied to the injured part to be bandaged with the aid of an applicator. Although the use of an applicator is not particularly difficult, it does need a certain amount of time and patience and also thought to replace the applicator with the unused roll of bandage so that it is available for subsequent use. A further problem with such bandages is that a "suitable" length must be cut from the roll for use: often substantially more than is actually needed for a particular job is cut off and considerable quantities of the roll are therefore wasted.
It is also known that an improved tubular bandage is available for use, this improved tubular bandage being manufactured in such a way that it is more easily applied to an injured part. The bandage referred to and available for use is a tubular bandage comprising a length of tubular-knitted fabric comprising courses of substantially inelastic yarn interknitted with courses of elastic yarn throughout said length, the bandage having a first end portion rolled outwardly from the free end and the other end portion rolled inwardly from the opposite free end to form two rolls.
This improved tubular bandage is applied to a body part by selecting a bandage as described above of a suitable size for the part, fitting the first end portion of the bandage around the body part, adjacent the section to be covered, unrolling the first end portion of the bandage so as to cover the body portion and subsequently unrolling the other end portion of the bandage over the first bandage portion so that the body part is in fact covered by two layers of the tubular bandage.
The provision of the improved bandages in pre-rolled form considerably facilitates their application to the injured part and avoids any need for an applicator. If the part to be bandaged comprises an extremity, such as a finger, once the first end of the bandage has been rolled into position, the centre of the bandage may be twisted, in known manner, before the other end of the bandage is rolled over the first portion so that the finger tip is fully covered. In the case of an intermediate part, such as the forearm, however, the bandage would not be twisted in this way. Although the improved tubular bandage referred to, consisting of a knitted fabric incorporating elastic and inelastic yarns, is suitable for many uses, it has now been found that the efficacy of the bandages when used for certain applications are improved if certain modifications are made as improvements, as defined in Claim 1 and the remainder of the claims appended to this specification.